Hi Guys
Come on lads! The cost of half a page in the yellow pages would finance buying a truck and kitting it out with a bill board. Park it a sations in the mornings or at road juctions etc.
I am talking about leaving it parked up all day. Think about what it would cost to have rent a bill board? and thats in one place and only for limited time. this one can be moved around and the message changed when you like.
I know that ther is a franchise that sells space on trucks like these more advanced than what i am talking about they have lights on and drive around all day in towns. So there must be a demand.
Finding new and differant types of Media to advertise taking our message to the groups that we are targeting must be number one on our lists?
There has been messages on this forum about mattress cleaning and allergies these markets are new and need a lot of effort to get them going. Just think about parking one of these trucks in a hospital car park all day with a allergy message on it. or down the raod from a large bed retailer.
One of the down sides to this country is because its so small we dont have magazines that are aimed at small groups, or if there is one it covers the whole UK so its inposable for us to think about covering that amount of area.
So what are the main media, yellow pages, leaflets, mail, are the main three. maybe a advertorial in a local paper. finding new media to carry our message is a must. we dont want to P** of our prospects or clients by using the phone as everyone is doing that at the moment. Fax maybe?
My point is that the more we all market and find new ways to reach those prospects will benifit all carpet cleaners as like in the US we need to move carpet cleaning up those prospects lists of importance.
I think that message is important as well marketing on price will do no one any good. I was talking to a prospect this morning, gave her the price for a room about £100 asked her if she would like protector she asked how much, told her she said not thanks as she did not see any value in it. So I asked about other areas, she walks out into the hall and is thinking if its worth doing. (This carpet is dirter than the one that i will be cleaning) All I said was you should not wait until the carpet looks dirty to clean as the carpets are the lunges of your home.
I end up clean the hall and two other rooms. costing her more money that she was turning up her nose at for the protector. This is a far more powerful message than cheap prices.
I dont think that in your face health cleaning is the way to go, "get your carpets cleaned because of health" but it should be part of the message. the exception should be when you are talking to a sufferer that you have found a way of reaching though some kind of media aimed at that group.
Media and group match is hard, and when you are trying to talk about something that is new in everone eyes then it evan harder, like mattress cleaning. No one of us has the money to promote these new markets but as a group going at it we might stand a chance. just think if everyone just put in their yellow pages advert about mattress cleaning over time this would expand the market for this service. Just like protector is today.
It about being a big fish in a little pond. making your marketing money work harder for your. We have just started putting in our marketing about fast drying service, you would not believe the coments we get about drying times. does this mean that these prospects have had problems in the past with poor service? and like to idea of having their carpets cleaned but have had them done once and they where still wet three days after the clean?
We can all offer low mosture cleaning, but if its not in the message then we might be missing out on those prospects?
Message, media, group match getting it right will make us and other cleaners richer. lets find new way to getting it across, like mobile bill boards
Respect
Ian harper